


Behind The Mask

by Marvel_Mania



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Brainwashed Bucky Barnes, Captain America Sam Wilson, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Character Death, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:20:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25498981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvel_Mania/pseuds/Marvel_Mania
Summary: It had been a long couple of days. First an assassin had shot Director Fury in Steve's apartment, then he found out that Hydra was not only alive but thriving, then he had been blown up in New Jersey, and now he was being attacked on a bridge.Steve was going to take Hydra down no matter the cost.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 19





	Behind The Mask

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the prompt -  
> "What if the mask hadn't fallen off during the fight on the bridge and Steve killed the Winter Soldier on the bridge only to find out who was behind the mask after it was already too late."
> 
> So I guess I was feeling particularly angsty today and this was the result. 
> 
> I'm not sure 'enjoy' would be the right word to use to describe reading this story but here we are. I hope everyone ejoys!

Waking up in the new century had been jarring, even more so when the sky opened up and aliens came through less than a month later, to Steve. The people around him didn’t seem to understand that, to Steve, he had lost his best friend a few weeks about and had been so sure that he was going to die. He had crashed the plane and then woken up in a new world.

Rather than dealing with his problems, he threw himself into working for Shield. It provided a good enough distraction, that is until it turned out to be Hydra.

He had sacrificed his life to end Hydra only to find out that it had all been for nothing. Hydra had corrupted the thing that Peggy had spent her life building. Forgive him if he was more than a little pissed off after having his apartment wrecked and being blown up in New Jersey and then attacked on the bridge.

By the time it came to the bridge, Steve didn’t care who he hurt. He wanted this to be done. It was his fault that they were in this situation. If he had successfully killed Hydra back in the 40’s they would be here.

The entire thing was made worse by the fact that they were surrounded by civilians and this Winter Soldier didn’t seem to give a damn. Steve had met some pretty terrible people since being unthawed but this guy ranked in the top five. He was beaten only by Schmidt and Loki but both of them had been crazy, unlike the Soldier.

He was calm and calculated. The code name had been passed on for fifty years. Whoever bore the title was meant to be heartless, ruthless, and cruel. Based on how the current Soldier was targeting civilians, he fit that description.

Steve had underestimated the Soldier when they had fought in Steve’s apartment and on the roof but he wouldn’t be making that mistake again. The metal arm was a match for Steve’s own strength but from the looks of it, the rest of him was very human.

When they got close enough for hand to hand combat, it was a fairly even match until the Soldier pulled out a knife. In the issuing fistfight, the Soldier dropped the knife. Steve had just enough time to pick up the knife before he was being thrown into the side of a van with another knife coming quickly towards his face.

Moving quickly, Steve blocked the knife with his shield and then plunged the other knife into the Soldier’s chest. At first, the Soldier acted as if he hadn’t felt anything but his moves soon became sloppy as he lost blood.

Steve had hit very close to the heart, probably severing or at least nicking a major artery. Losing blood quickly, the Soldier soon went down. After the Soldier had been taken out of play, they had been able to defeat Hydra fairly quickly.

Hill came screeching to a halt in a van. Natasha went to the van quickly, she had been wounded in the fight. “Cap, we need to go,” she yelled at him.

“Sam, help me get him,” Steve yelled.

The two of them were able to drag the Soldier to the van quickly before Hill sped off again. Sam quickly checked for a pulse but didn’t find one. The pool of blood that the Soldier had been laying it had been substantial. No one, not even Steve, could have survived that much blood loss.

Ignoring the body, Sam focused on Natasha’s wound while Hill debriefed then. The main thing had been that Fury had managed to evade death for what wasn’t the first time and wouldn’t be the last.

Without the Soldier, Hydra would be weaker and it would be easier to take them down. Steve had made it clear that everything went. Hydra and Shield, not that there was much of a difference anymore.

Before they left for the Triskelion, Steve went to the van to see the body. The mask was still on but the Soldier had taken the goggles off before the hand to hand combat. Steve ripped off the mask and regretted it instantly.

He knew the face under the mask. He had never thought that he would see this face again. “Bucky,” Steve breathed softly. He knew that he wouldn’t be getting an answer.

Steve wasn’t sure how Bucky had survived the fall from the train but there was no question now. Bucky was dead and Steve was the one who had killed him. It had been two or three hours since Steve stabbed him but he hadn’t gone completely cold yet.

He heard someone talking distantly and it took him a while to figure out that he was the one talking. He was talking to Bucky, he realized with a start. Almost hysterically he held Bucky’s face in his hands but nothing happened. Steve wasn’t sure what he had expected but he had been expecting something. Instead, Bucky’s eyes remained closed and his chest still.

Steve had no clue how long he was like that, time had lost meaning, before someone came for him. Fury and Natasha. “Did you know,” he demanded. Natasha has admitted to having a run-in with the Winter Soldier at least once recently and Fury had been the director of Shield.

It took both of them a moment to realize what Steve was talking about but then they both suddenly understood. “No,” was all Fury said.

“Steve,” Natasha said softly.

“You need to leave,” Fury said.

“It’s time to go,” Natasha said and placed a hand on his arm. When had she gotten that close?

“I want him buried properly,” Steve said finally. He had to physically pull himself away from Bucky. He had another mission to complete.

Taking down Project Insight has been easy enough. Natasha had dumped all files onto the internet and then the building was coming down. It happened quickly but all Steve could think about was Bucky.

He had had Bucky’s blood on his hands. The Winter Soldier wasn’t a code name passed down from operative to operative. It had been the code name assigned to Bucky by Hydra. The first confirmed Winter Soldier killing had been fifty years ago meaning Hydra had tortured Bucky for twenty-some years before forcing him to kill.

Bucky had gotten his propped burial. It was at his and Steve’s graves that Sam and Natasha came to him. Steve was retiring and he didn’t want people looking for him.

“It wasn’t your fault. He would have killed you,” Sam tried to comfort.

“It was a mercy killing. I’ve read the files I released. No one can go through what he did and come out on the other side the same. The James Barnes you knew did die when he fell from the train,” Natasha said.

“I’m done with this job. That was my last mission,” Steve said. “Take the Shield, Sam. People will be looking for a leader now and I can’t be that but you can.”

“Steve,” Sam said softly even as he was handed the Shield. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything,” he said simply. “As far as the world is concerned, I died in the collapse of the Triskelion.”

“What are you going to do now,” Natasha asked.

“I don’t know,” Steve said honestly. “I lost Bucky once and then again without realizing it until it was too late. The first time nearly destroyed me and now I’m done. He was who I would have done anything for and I’m the one who killed him. His blood is the blood I will never be able to wash off.”

“You could still find someone and have a normal life,” Sam tried to say.

“No. Bucky was it for me. He was the end of the line. A life with someone isn’t worth anything to me if the someone isn’t Bucky.”

They all stood at Bucky and Steve’s graves for a moment longer before they left. Steve hadn’t been joking about retiring. He was staying in New York but he was going upstate and away from people.

Steve took up drawing again and he drew Bucky. He drew him as he had once remembered him and who he could have been. The last thing Steve saw every night was a drawing of Bucky’s face and it would probably be the last thing he ever saw before it was his time and he would be meeting Bucky in the next life.


End file.
